The present invention relates to an improved machine for forming confectionery products, such as so-called "croissants" and the like.
As it is well known, particularly machines are presently known, used in the confectionery field, effective to carry out, according to a predetermined sequence, the flattening out of the sweet dough, the cutting of the formed puff-pastry into triangles and the subsequent gripping, rotating and spacing of said puff-pastry triangles for forming croissants, brioches and the like confectionery products.
For a more detailed description of such a machine, reference is herein made to a machine, having the hereinabove mentioned operative characteristics, which is described and illustrated in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,348, filed on Nov. 1, 1979.
This machine essentially comprises a dough flattening out station, a station for cutting the puff-pastry into triangles, a cut puff-pastry triangle spacing and orienting station, a triangle aligning station and a forming station.
However, in the machine of the said Patent Specification, the cut puff-pastry triangles, after suitable locating and rolling up operations, freely fall on an output conveyor belt.
This fact requires a subsequent manual transferring of the individual formed product pieces, in order to arrange the latter on suitable pans to be sent to the baking oven.
Moreover, the product pieces have to be bent in such a way as to shape these pieces according to the shapes of the seats formed in the pans.
Accordingly, more than one operator are required, in order to carry out simple operations of the repetitive type, thereby negatively adding to the cost of the finished confectionery products.